ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOR NORFOLK. 133 



20th. — A Tawny Owlt found drowned in the stable-tank at 

 Northrepps. The reflection of the water may have caused the 

 accident, but I think it more likely that, having just arrived, it 

 went into the first dark corner it saw, with the intention of 

 roosting. 



27th. — Two Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers seen at Sustead by 

 Mr. Davy, and one on the 25th at Aldborough. Mr. Dye received 

 a Water-Kail killed by the telegraph-wires in the middle of 

 Yarmouth. 



30th. — Saw the first Grey Crow.t 



October. 



1st. — A Hoopoe seen at Drayton (Berners). 



2nd. — A young Scaup-Duck, f which fell winged to my shot 

 into a large pond, showed great powers of diving, and it was not 

 until the following day that the keeper retrieved it. 



10th. — S.E., 2, with a strong upper current blowing from the 

 west. Flocks of Sky-Larkst coming in from the sea at Over- 

 strand, up to as late as 5 p.m., flying from the north, and they 

 were also noted by Mr. Dye at Yarmouth. It would have been 

 a good day for birds at the light-vessels. 



11th. — High wind from S.W. A Swift seen at Sherringham 

 by Sir Digby Pigott, and on the 13th the same, or another, was 

 picked up in Cromer churchyard by Mr. Barclay. Last year the 

 Swift was late in leaving (cf. Zool. p. 132), but these laggards 

 are not Norfolk birds, but travellers which have come from some 

 place further north. In 1872 I saw a Swift on Oct. 3rd, and in 

 1874 one on Oct. 14th — both near Cromer. 



12th. — A Skua, probably Eichardson's Skua, was seen by 

 Mr. Bird at Wells, mobbing a Heron, which it made to drop its 

 prey, but the Skua did not attempt to secure it. 



15th. — A Fork-tailed Petrel picked up at Yarmouth (Saunders). 



Snow Geese A — Towards the end of October, when the Pink- 

 footed Geese were arriving, according to custom, on the grass- 

 lands which form their favourite feeding-grounds at Holkam and 

 Burnbam, it was seen that there were two white ones among 

 them, and subsequently a third stranger of a dusky lemon tint 

 was detected by Mr. A. Napier, who at once rightly concluded 

 that the white birds were Snow Geese. They were not very shy, 



